1st
Oct 2015
Ferraris,
Ferraris, and er – a little Pavarotti.
So if you don’t
like Ferraris or Pavarotti, stop reading now and wait till tomorrow’s
installment ! In the meantime, today was
mostly about Ferraris. It was grey when
we woke up, and soon started to drizzle, so we packed up fairly quickly and set
off. With the rain, there was no point
in Janet going off on a Balsamico / Parma ham / Parmigiano cheese tour – So we both
headed into Modena to the Enzo Ferrari Museum.
This is totally separate from the Ferrari Museum in Maranello 14 kms
south, and is in the old work whop of Enzo’s father Alfredo. It focuses on older cars, and items that Enzo
had more direct involvement in. It is tucked away in a little corner of Modena,
and apart from the small signposts, you do not realize you are there until you
see the yellow roof at the corner of the street.
Inside the big
main hall, which houses maybe just 20 cars, the first car I saw I fell in love
with – An incredible turquoise blue 1964 Superfast. It just took my breath away. There is then a varied display of everything
from the first 4 seater production Ferrari, a 1948 Inter Aerlux, right through
to a 2013 LaFerrari (including Kers), to a 1970 512 MM Sports Racer that,
coincidentally I saw at Goodwood back in July ! And on the
wall was a
Scaglietti wire frame used for checking the aluminium body parts for the 1961
250 GTO. Also a wooden buck originally used for the 365P of 1966. While the display of cars, and around the
sides, paperwork and photos, were superb, every 40 minutes or so the closed the
doors and showed a movie up on the walls, so you sat on the platforms beside
the cars and watched a movie in a cinema housing probably the most expensive
collection of unique cars in any cinema anywhere in the world. A wonderful collection,
The other part of
the Enzo Ferrari Museum is housed in his father’s old workshop and the house
where Enzo grew up. This houses a lot of
engines, some early cars like the 1947 125 S, the first Ferrari ever built, and
the 1951 F2 500, the actual car in which Ascari won the first two Formula 1
World Championships. A beautiful blue
Dino was just about perfect. Amongst
the other displays, stories about Enzo growing up in the house, and a display
of him in his office, made it a thoroughly enjoyable couple of hours. There was a sign I liked that said
that
Ferrari had an “Error Room” where the mechanical parts that had construction
faults, or that gave way during races, were kept and catalogued. A great way to
learn from one’s mistakes, and learn ! They even have Ferrari shaped dog cages for
people who happen to bring their dogs along !!
It was still
raining when we left, so we decided to go on to the Ferrari Museum in
Maranello. Not far away, Maranello is
where the Ferrari factory now stands, and everything in the area is Ferrari –
Ferrari shops, Ferrari test drives (for €60 +), Ferrari clothing stores. It is
endless ! We parked and headed into the
museum itself – And as we couldn’t make a sandwich for
our lunch at the car
because of the rain, we had a heated roll and coffee in the Ferrari coffee shop
– Both were cold ! Not impressed. We then headed into the museum itself.
First car you see
is a 1957 250 Testa Rossa, and if you are my age, this makes you weak at the
knees, because it was one of the most amazing sports cars ever when I was
growing up, winning 3 World Championships in 4 years. Then a 1955 Supersqualo, a 250 GTO, a 250 LM,
and some amazing modern cars, some of which were made for specific
customers. And again, a red Dino with
its exquisite lines was just breathtaking.
How many Ferrari
can you get in a single photo ? I got 90
in one shot !! Another car that shocked
me was a 1988 4 WD prototype called the 488 4RM, which never actually went into
production, but of which the aluminium chassis was glued – And I thought Lotus
were the first to do this with the Elise.
Maybe Lotus were the first to do it in production, but it is interesting
to know that Ferrari were playing around with it 8 years earlier !
Overall, the 250
GTO is just gorgeous, but of the modern cars, the SA Aperta was stunning, and I
would have taken it home if I could have fitted it in my pocket. And some of the technical info about carbon
brakes and gearboxes and the development of buttons on steering wheels (largely
developed by Michael Schumacher) were fascinating.
We left by taking
a cheeky photo of me with my Lotus Umbrella outside the Ferrari museum – The
Lotus sign needed to be bigger !! It was
still raining, so we decided to find some Balsamic wineries – We had 3
addresses to go to, and after wandering the back lanes of Maranello and Modena
for an hour or so, we found all of them closed ! For winter ?
Not sure, but ended up going to the Pavarotti Museum which Janet really
wanted to see, and after her going to two Ferrari museums, I was hardly in a
position to deny her !! The museum is
actually his house where he lived and died – His wife has now returned to her
home town of Bologna to live. Enzo and
Pavarotti were firm friends, both proudly came from Modena, and both enjoyed
life – Many of the tours around here pair them together, and I have to say,
they are a good fit. Much of the
background music in the Enzo museum is Pavarotti, and it works very well,
even
though I am not really a Pavarotti or opera fan. The Pavarotti museum was interesting, and I
learn a lot about him that I didn’t know before. Janet really enjoyed it, which is good !
Still raining
when we left and we decided to go find a different camp site in Modena – Too
expensive and too many squat pots last night !!
On the way, winding through the little country lanes outside Modena, we
suddenly saw a Parmesan cheese factory / shop – So we went in, queued up with
all the locals buying their supplies of cheese,
parma ham, and balsamico, and
came away with a little of each. It
wasn’t quite the same as a Balsamic winery, but certainly the next best thing,
and meant we went home with a stock of cheese !! The camp site we eventually found tonight
is half the price and no squat pots !
But it is full of caravans parked for the winter, so is a little like
sleeping in a second hand caravan or motorhome yard ! The rain had slackened off to a drizzle, so
we set up, had an early supper and went to bed.
If it is still raining tomorrow we might just head on down towards Rome
– It is only about 400 kms away, so a couple of days for us. We will see what it is like in the
morning.
our lunch at the car
because of the rain, we had a heated roll and coffee in the Ferrari coffee shop
– Both were cold ! Not impressed. We then headed into the museum itself.
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